Come To Our General Membership Meeting!

GEO is a democratic organization made up of you, its members. Every semester, we host at least two General Membership Meetings (GMMs) to engage in discussion, relay important information, and make decisions for the organization. This GMM will provide all members with tools to be effective advocates for GEO. Under Right to Work, the strength of our union depends on one-on-one conversations between members and graduate students at all stages and in all programs across the university.

At this meeting, you will hear about the Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO) as they begin bargaining for their new contract in a few days, about our 3-year plan as we work up to our next contract negotiation, about our new contract and how we enforce it, discuss how we can support our organizing committee in light of Right to Work, and get to know the different GEO caucuses and committees in breakout groups.

Tell us you’re coming and invite your friends in our Facebook Event page.

Welcome New Social Work GSIs

Congratulations to the seven graduate students at the School of Social Work, who had previously been hired as unpaid “Peer Facilitators,” with responsibilities for creating course content and learning class discussions, just like a GSI. After reaching out to us, GEO took their case to Human Resources and these seven student workers will now have their work recognized and compensated as GSIs, with pay, benefits, and tuition waivers! If you are having problems in your job or think that you might be experiencing a violation of your contract, check out the Contract Digest (above) and send an email to our grievance chair at grrrchair@geo3550.org.

Congratulations to Grad Student Workers at the University of Chicago!

Our newest sibling union, Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago, was formed this week after an overwhelming vote in support of unionization by graduate workers. The final tally came in at 1103 YES, and 479 opposed. This is a remarkable victory for graduate student workers who faced significant opposition from campus administration. Congratulate your UChicago friends and follow them on Facebook for updates.

We hope you enjoyed your fall break, and thanks for reading!